The invention relates to the services environment of any kind of IP (Internet Protocol) based networks, including but not limited to the Internet, VoIP (Voice over IP) networks, 3G R00 cellular systems, WLAN (Wireless Local Area Network), Cable etc. The invention belongs to the same field as the wireless intelligent networking service environments that are applicable to the existing cellular systems. Examples for such intelligent networks are CAMEL (Customised Application For Mobile Network Enhanced Logic) or WIN (Wireless IN). In additions it also relates to efforts within IETF (Internet Engineering Task Force) in the PINT (PSTN (Public Switched Telephone Network)/Internet Interworking).
There are significant thrusts in 3GPP (Third Generation Partnership Project) and other SDOs (Standard Development Organisations) in developing a packet based multimedia communications network architecture as next generation wireless/cellular networks. These networks must be capable of supporting wide range of services (e.g. VoIP, multimedia, e-mail, instant messaging, WEB browsing, WAP (Wireless Application Protocol), etc.) currently available as well as the future services that may be developed.
Currently available service architecture based on CAMEL (or WIN) are voice centric suitable for a traditional voice-based telecommunication network. A multimedia service, by definition, can include more than one media sessions like voice, video, text etc. Further, the existing IN service models utilize technologies and protocols applicable within the telecom industry. There are other parallel efforts in this area trying to make IP services available to the IN (Intelligent Network) subscriber (3GPP) and otherwise trying to make IN services available to the IP or other subscriber (PINT, Parlay). In these efforts, emphasis was placed on a hybrid environment wherein services are made available from ore domain to the other.
However, the above networks do not provide a sufficient flexibility in order to meet the wide range of requirements put forth by the above-described next generation IP networks at the services environment level.